Bakkt CEO: Crypto Trading Platform Won’t Support Margin Trading

Two weeks after the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) introduced Bakkt, a new digital assets platform, the latter’s CEO has set out to explain what the service will offer consumers.

Bakkt chief executive Kelly Loeffler outlined the fundamentals for a platform to trade, store or spend cryptocurrencies in a post published on August 20. The platform is currently working with what she described as “a proven framework that underpins exchanges” which will include three characteristics: it will be consistent with existing regulations, provide a transparent system for price discovery and offer “institutional quality pre-and post-trade infrastructure.”

Notably, Loeffler emphasized the critical role that the physical delivery of cryptocurrencies plays in trusted price formation, which is the foundation of advancing the promise of cryptocurrencies, according to the post.

She explained further:

“Specifically, with our solution, the buying and selling of bitcoin is fully collateralized or pre-funded. As such, our new daily bitcoin contract will not be traded on margin, use leverage or serve to create a paper claim on a real asset.”

As CoinDesk reported on August 3, Bakkt is a digital assets platform that will leverage Microsoft’s cloud technology to build “an open and regulated, global ecosystem for digital assets.”

Along with the announcement of the platform, ICE mentioned that it plans to offer a one-day “physical bitcoin futures contract,” meaning bitcoin will be delivered on a specified date, which distinguishes it from other offerings that are settled with cash.

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